ITV Thames Valley
Encyclopedia
ITV Thames Valley was a non-franchise
ITV
news region covering the Thames Valley
area of the United Kingdom
from 4 December 2006 until 8 February 2009. It served the south/south-eastern area of the legal Central franchise
and the north/north-western area of the legal Meridian franchise
. In its first year, its flagship news programme Thames Valley Tonight
won the Royal Television Society's Southern Centre Award for News Magazine Programme of the Year for its coverage of the 2007 summer floods.
The service began broadcasting 4 December 2006 merging the news assets of the two former sub-regions, and its newsrooms were officially opened on 26 January 2007 by ITV executive chairman, Michael Grade
.
It was operated by ITV plc
, and the main news programme in the area was Thames Valley Tonight
.
base for production. However this number was reduced to around 10 by re-organisation of staffing roles. Central South's old newsroom at Abingdon was retained as the main newsgathering base for ITV Thames Valley.
The launch was successful in ratings terms. Although initially, ITV Thames Valley's flagship news programme, Thames Valley Tonight, received some minor criticism by viewers due to its lack of locality of news items in some areas due to the much larger geographical coverage area compared to its sub-regional predecessors.
Central and Meridian are both owned by ITV plc
, which holds all the ITV franchise licenses in England
and Wales
, so this change amounts simply to an internal organisation. Meridian classed the ITV Thames Valley service as "a third semi-independent sub-region for the Thames Valley", and stated its headquarters were in Abingdon
. The service was known to be branded as both "ITV Thames Valley" and also "Meridian Thames Valley".
hinted at a possible re-structure of the ITV regional layout, stating the existence of smaller regional services "no longer makes sense" relative to the regional audience they serve.
The move is expected to give ITV plc "greater value for money", however will be subject to Ofcom
approval.
The plan was confirmed in September 2007, and would reduce the number of regional news programmes from 17 to just 9 in early 2009, saving around £35 to £40 million each year. Under these proposals, all sub-regions, including Thames Valley, were axed for larger regions only. ITV Thames Valley's service merged with Meridian, enabling a single live regional news programme to cover the whole of a Meridian franchise area (including the ex-Central part of the ITV Thames Valley patch), with short recorded opt-outs for sub-regional headlines.
The last broadcast date of the main weekday evening edition of Thames Valley Tonight was on Friday 6 February 2009 with the very last Thames Valley news bulletin broadcast on Sunday 8 February 2009. The main presenters of the pan-regional successor service
are Fred Dinenage and Sangeeta Barbra, both of Meridian.
service:
. However, as a consequence of the changes, the ITV contractor for the West of England
, ITV West, was unofficially extended to cover the Gloucester
and Cheltenham
areas, previously served by Central South. This was achieved by an additional set of aerials fitted on the Ridge Hill transmitter broadcasting ITV West on analogue
UHF 30 alongside Central West on UHF 25. However, the DTT
coverage of Multiplex 2
from the transmitter (which contains the regional ITV service), will not be altered to accommodate these changes, and will solely broadcast the West subregion of Central. This complication will be resolved with digital switchover; and until then, both regions available from the Ridge Hill transmitter will provide regional news for Gloucester and Cheltenham. However, as the Ridge Hill transmitter will continue to broadcast Central, the digital switchover date for that transmitter will be unaffected, switching with the rest of the Central region in 2011, despite the fact it also carries ITV West which should be switching a year earlier. However, the Oxford transmitter
legally moved from the Central schedule for digital switchover, to that of Meridian and therefore the overall switchover date for ITV Thames Valley will be 2012.
The BBC
made no changes to its regional service supplied by the Ridge Hill, Oxford or Hannington transmitters.
continued to receive Central's non-news regional programmes (as that was the ITV franchisee) and the south continued to receive Meridian's.
Following a fair selection process involving Central South and Meridian West staff, Robin Britton was appointed Head of News for ITV Thames Valley.
The News Executive team included:
The service did not extend to breakfast bulletins (i.e. during GMTV
), however, viewers receives "GMTV News
" at this time, which was a service covering the Thames Valley and the rest of the Meridian franchise area. ITV Thames Valley did however have its own weekend bulletins.
Franchising
Franchising is the practice of using another firm's successful business model. The word 'franchise' is of anglo-French derivation - from franc- meaning free, and is used both as a noun and as a verb....
ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
news region covering the Thames Valley
Thames Valley
The Thames Valley Region is a loose term for the English counties and towns roughly following the course of the River Thames as it flows from Oxfordshire in the west to London in the east. It includes parts of Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, North Hampshire, Surrey and west London...
area of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
from 4 December 2006 until 8 February 2009. It served the south/south-eastern area of the legal Central franchise
Central Independent Television
Central Independent Television, more commonly known as Central is the Independent Television contractor for the Midlands, created following the restructuring of ATV and commencing broadcast on 1 January 1982. The station is owned and operated by ITV plc, under the licensee of ITV Broadcasting...
and the north/north-western area of the legal Meridian franchise
Meridian Broadcasting
Meridian Broadcasting is the holder of the ITV franchise for the South and South East of England. The station is owned and operated by ITV plc, under the licensee of ITV Broadcasting Limited....
. In its first year, its flagship news programme Thames Valley Tonight
Thames Valley Tonight
Thames Valley Tonight was a regional news programme broadcast to part of the ITV Network in the Thames Valley area of southern England. The Thames Valley news region was launched on Monday 4 December 2006 and ceased to exist on 8 February 2009....
won the Royal Television Society's Southern Centre Award for News Magazine Programme of the Year for its coverage of the 2007 summer floods.
The service began broadcasting 4 December 2006 merging the news assets of the two former sub-regions, and its newsrooms were officially opened on 26 January 2007 by ITV executive chairman, Michael Grade
Michael Grade
Michael Ian Grade, Baron Grade of Yarmouth CBE is a British broadcast executive and businessman. He was BBC chairman from 2004 to 2006 and executive chairman of ITV plc from 2007 to 2009.-Early life:...
.
It was operated by ITV plc
ITV plc
ITV plc is a British media company that operates 12 of the 15 regional television broadcasters that make up the ITV Network, the oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in the United Kingdom...
, and the main news programme in the area was Thames Valley Tonight
Thames Valley Tonight
Thames Valley Tonight was a regional news programme broadcast to part of the ITV Network in the Thames Valley area of southern England. The Thames Valley news region was launched on Monday 4 December 2006 and ceased to exist on 8 February 2009....
.
Launch
Initially, ITV Thames Valley was to be launched on 4 November 2006. However, due to transmitter realignment, the date was finally set to 4 December; four weeks later than planned. It was expected the merging of the two sub-regions was originally expected to make over 40 workers redundant in editorial and production positions in Central South due to the favouring of Meridian's WhiteleyWhiteley
Whiteley is a community in the county of Hampshire, England, near Fareham. The development straddles the boundary between two council districts: the Borough of Fareham to the south and east, and the city of Winchester to the north and west.-Location:...
base for production. However this number was reduced to around 10 by re-organisation of staffing roles. Central South's old newsroom at Abingdon was retained as the main newsgathering base for ITV Thames Valley.
The launch was successful in ratings terms. Although initially, ITV Thames Valley's flagship news programme, Thames Valley Tonight, received some minor criticism by viewers due to its lack of locality of news items in some areas due to the much larger geographical coverage area compared to its sub-regional predecessors.
Central and Meridian are both owned by ITV plc
ITV plc
ITV plc is a British media company that operates 12 of the 15 regional television broadcasters that make up the ITV Network, the oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in the United Kingdom...
, which holds all the ITV franchise licenses in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, so this change amounts simply to an internal organisation. Meridian classed the ITV Thames Valley service as "a third semi-independent sub-region for the Thames Valley", and stated its headquarters were in Abingdon
Abingdon, Oxfordshire
Abingdon or archaically Abingdon-on-Thames is a market town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, England. It is the seat of the Vale of White Horse district. Previously the county town of Berkshire, Abingdon is one of several places that claim to be Britain's oldest continuously occupied town, with...
. The service was known to be branded as both "ITV Thames Valley" and also "Meridian Thames Valley".
Merger with Meridian
In June 2007, ITV plc executive chairman Michael GradeMichael Grade
Michael Ian Grade, Baron Grade of Yarmouth CBE is a British broadcast executive and businessman. He was BBC chairman from 2004 to 2006 and executive chairman of ITV plc from 2007 to 2009.-Early life:...
hinted at a possible re-structure of the ITV regional layout, stating the existence of smaller regional services "no longer makes sense" relative to the regional audience they serve.
The move is expected to give ITV plc "greater value for money", however will be subject to Ofcom
Ofcom
Ofcom is the government-approved regulatory authority for the broadcasting and telecommunications industries in the United Kingdom. Ofcom was initially established by the Office of Communications Act 2002. It received its full authority from the Communications Act 2003...
approval.
The plan was confirmed in September 2007, and would reduce the number of regional news programmes from 17 to just 9 in early 2009, saving around £35 to £40 million each year. Under these proposals, all sub-regions, including Thames Valley, were axed for larger regions only. ITV Thames Valley's service merged with Meridian, enabling a single live regional news programme to cover the whole of a Meridian franchise area (including the ex-Central part of the ITV Thames Valley patch), with short recorded opt-outs for sub-regional headlines.
The last broadcast date of the main weekday evening edition of Thames Valley Tonight was on Friday 6 February 2009 with the very last Thames Valley news bulletin broadcast on Sunday 8 February 2009. The main presenters of the pan-regional successor service
Meridian Tonight
Meridian Tonight is a regional television news and current affairs programme, produced by ITV Meridian , serving the South and South East of England , and usually broadcast at 6pm and 10.30pm every weeknight. Other bulletins are branded as Meridian News...
are Fred Dinenage and Sangeeta Barbra, both of Meridian.
Sub-regions
The ITV Thames Valley news-gathering area itself was divided into two distinct north/south sub-regions for advertising and non-news regional programming only, on the ITV1ITV1
ITV1 is a generic brand that is used by twelve franchises of the British ITV Network in the English regions, Wales, southern Scotland , the Isle of Man and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey. The ITV1 brand was introduced by Carlton and Granada in 2001, alongside the regional identities of their...
service:
- Thames Valley North (Ex-Central South): Carried Central's non-news regional programmes with the Thames Valley TonightThames Valley TonightThames Valley Tonight was a regional news programme broadcast to part of the ITV Network in the Thames Valley area of southern England. The Thames Valley news region was launched on Monday 4 December 2006 and ceased to exist on 8 February 2009....
news programme - Thames Valley South (Ex-Meridian North): Carried Meridian's non-news regional programmes with the Thames Valley TonightThames Valley TonightThames Valley Tonight was a regional news programme broadcast to part of the ITV Network in the Thames Valley area of southern England. The Thames Valley news region was launched on Monday 4 December 2006 and ceased to exist on 8 February 2009....
news programme
Regional area changes
No legal franchise area boundaries were altered between Central and Meridian; only the visual appearance of the service has changed. ITV Thames Valley was not perceived as a legal Channel 3 entity with regulator OfcomOfcom
Ofcom is the government-approved regulatory authority for the broadcasting and telecommunications industries in the United Kingdom. Ofcom was initially established by the Office of Communications Act 2002. It received its full authority from the Communications Act 2003...
. However, as a consequence of the changes, the ITV contractor for the West of England
West of England
The West of England is a loose and locationally unspecific term sometimes given to the area surrounding the city and county of Bristol, England, and also sometimes applied more widely and in other parts of South West England.-Use in the Bristol area:...
, ITV West, was unofficially extended to cover the Gloucester
Gloucester
Gloucester is a city, district and county town of Gloucestershire in the South West region of England. Gloucester lies close to the Welsh border, and on the River Severn, approximately north-east of Bristol, and south-southwest of Birmingham....
and Cheltenham
Cheltenham
Cheltenham , also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a large spa town and borough in Gloucestershire, on the edge of the Cotswolds in the South-West region of England. It is the home of the flagship race of British steeplechase horse racing, the Gold Cup, the main event of the Cheltenham Festival held...
areas, previously served by Central South. This was achieved by an additional set of aerials fitted on the Ridge Hill transmitter broadcasting ITV West on analogue
Analogue television in the United Kingdom
Analogue television in the United Kingdom includes terrestrial, satellite and cable services broadcasting using analogue television signals.-Analogue terrestrial television in the United Kingdom:...
UHF 30 alongside Central West on UHF 25. However, the DTT
Digital terrestrial television
Digital terrestrial television is the technological evolution of broadcast television and advance from analog television, which broadcasts land-based signals...
coverage of Multiplex 2
Digital 3&4
Digital 3&4 is a consortium consisting of regional Channel 3 companies and Channel 4 Television Corporation, which operates a multiplex broadcasting from a number of transmitter sites in the UK, carrying television and radio channels from both ITV and Channel 4; however three per-cent of the...
from the transmitter (which contains the regional ITV service), will not be altered to accommodate these changes, and will solely broadcast the West subregion of Central. This complication will be resolved with digital switchover; and until then, both regions available from the Ridge Hill transmitter will provide regional news for Gloucester and Cheltenham. However, as the Ridge Hill transmitter will continue to broadcast Central, the digital switchover date for that transmitter will be unaffected, switching with the rest of the Central region in 2011, despite the fact it also carries ITV West which should be switching a year earlier. However, the Oxford transmitter
Oxford transmitting station
The Oxford transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications facility, situated on land above Ordnance Datum to the north east of the city of Oxford, in Oxfordshire, England . It has a guyed steel lattice mast which is in height to the top of the main steel structure...
legally moved from the Central schedule for digital switchover, to that of Meridian and therefore the overall switchover date for ITV Thames Valley will be 2012.
The BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
made no changes to its regional service supplied by the Ridge Hill, Oxford or Hannington transmitters.
Programming
All programming for the ITV Thames Valley region was produced from Meridian's Whiteley studios, with Central South's Abingdon base retained as a newsgathering centre only. ITV Thames Valley did not produce any non-news programming; the north of the regionOxford transmitting station
The Oxford transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications facility, situated on land above Ordnance Datum to the north east of the city of Oxford, in Oxfordshire, England . It has a guyed steel lattice mast which is in height to the top of the main steel structure...
continued to receive Central's non-news regional programmes (as that was the ITV franchisee) and the south continued to receive Meridian's.
Following a fair selection process involving Central South and Meridian West staff, Robin Britton was appointed Head of News for ITV Thames Valley.
The News Executive team included:
- Producer: Kim Hewitt
- News editor: Jim Stevens
- Features producer: Reshma Rumsey
- Forward planning: Kate Taylor
- Newsroom Journalist:Gaggan Sabherwal
- Assistant producer: Janet Hayman
- Technical co-ordinator: Steve Atkey
- Graphic designer: Blue Hall
- Output producers: Caroline Asker and Caroline Ferguson
- Programme presenters: Mary Green, Hannah Shellswell and Wesley Smith
- Sports presenters Chris Maugahan, Victoria Bennett and David Reilly
- Studio director: Keith Peries
The service did not extend to breakfast bulletins (i.e. during GMTV
GMTV
GMTV was the national Channel 3 breakfast television contractor, broadcasting in the United Kingdom from 1 January 1993 to 3 September 2010. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of ITV plc. in November 2009. Shortly after, ITV plc announced the programme would end...
), however, viewers receives "GMTV News
GMTV News (South)
GMTV News was the brand name for the regional news service in the south coast of England and the Thames Valley, from 5 December 2006 until 6 February 2009....
" at this time, which was a service covering the Thames Valley and the rest of the Meridian franchise area. ITV Thames Valley did however have its own weekend bulletins.